Submission to the Toronto Police Services Board’s Use of New Artificial Intelligence Technologies Policy - LEAF and The Citizen Lab

Abstract

We write as a group of experts in the legal regulation of artificial intelligence (AI), technology-facilitated violence, equality, and the use of AI systems by law enforcement in Canada. We have experience working within academia and legal practice, and are affiliated with LEAF and the Citizen Lab who support this letter.

We reviewed the Toronto Police Services Board Use of New Artificial Intelligence Technologies Policy and provide comments and recommendations focused on the following key observations:

1. Police use of AI technologies must not be seen as inevitable
2. A commitment to protecting equality and human rights must be integrated more thoroughly throughout the TPSB policy and its AI analysis procedures
3. Inequality is embedded in AI as a system in ways that cannot be mitigated through a policy only dealing with use
4. Having more accurate AI systems does not mitigate inequality
5. The TPS must not engage in unnecessary or disproportionate mass collection and analysis of data
6. TPSB’s AI policy should provide concrete guidance on the proactive identification and classification of risk
7. TPSB’s AI policy must ensure expertise in independent vetting, risk analysis, and human rights impact analysis
8. The TPSB should be aware of assessment challenges that can arise when an AI system is developed by a private enterprise
9. The TPSB must apply the draft policy to all existing AI technologies that are used by, or presently accessible to, the Toronto Police Service

In light of these key observations, we have made 33 specific recommendations for amendments to the draft policy.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, police, algorithmic policing, substantive equality, privacy, human rights